Graphene-based photovoltaic cells for near-field thermal energy conversion

Abstract

Thermophotovoltaic devices are energy-conversion systems generating an electric current from the thermal photons radiated by a hot body. In far field, the efficiency of these systems is limited by the thermodynamic Schockley-Queisser limit corresponding to the case where the source is a black body. On the other hand, in near field, the heat flux which can be transferred to a photovoltaic cell can be several orders of magnitude larger because of the contribution of evanescent photons. This is particularly true when the source supports surface polaritons. Unfortunately, in the infrared where these systems operate, the mismatch between the surface-mode frequency and the semiconductor gap reduces drastically the potential of this technology. Here we show that graphene-based hybrid photovoltaic cells can significantly enhance the generated power paving the way to a promising technology for an intensive production of electricity from waste heat.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Optical properties of graphene
• Near-field thermal radiation transfer controlled by plasmons in graphene
• Plasmons enhance near-field radiative heat transfer for graphene-covered dielectrics
• Three-body amplification of photon heat tunneling
• Near-field radiative heat transfer between closely spaced graphene and amorphous SiO${}_2$

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• Inelastic thermoelectric transport and fluctuations in mesoscopic system
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• The Effect of Non-Local Electrical Conductivity on Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer between Graphene Sheets
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